Being brought up in the country I have a different viewpoint on deer damaging my garden especially my tomatoes.

My parents and I relished the times that the deer roamed freely across the yard.

And while we did loose vegetables and fruits to those beautiful deer it was a minor price to pay.

Some of my Dad’s neighbors shot the deer because they were eating into their farm profits and the law said they could do it without any repercussions but for my family the cost of loosing 1 deer over a few tomatoes was not worth it.

But as we as a society move farther into the country the encounters with deer increases. Some again will shoot the deer only to end up with a dead deer and missing produce. Some will try dogs, bullhorns Read the rest of this entry »

As Michelle Fabio pointed out here last year, ” a report from the University of Georgia estimates that the salmonella scare of this past summer cost Georgia’s economy approximately $25.7 million–and that is just one state.”

Later, the FDA changed their position and said the outbreak was actually caused by jalapeÃ±o peppers.

Let’s get this cleared up right now: the late blight is not the fault of the tomatoes, heirloom or hybrid.

Nor is it the fault of the home gardeners who are trying to distance themselves, even just a little, from the corporate food grid.

It’s not the fault of potatoes, or the recession, or Michelle Obama.

And it’s only kind of the fault of the big box plant brokers who sold the infected plants.

No, the bulk of the blame for the epidemic of late blight this growing season belongs squarely where the blame for epidemics nearly always belongs: Mama Nature. We had a cool, wet spring and early summer, and the blight just loved it. Hey, it happens.